I.  Yesterday we kept high Festival on the illustrious Day of the Holy Lights; for it was fitting that rejoicings should be kept for our Salvation, and that far more than for weddings and birthdays, and namedays, and house-warmings, and registrations of children, and anniversaries, and all the other festivities that men observe for their earthly friends.  And now to-day let us discourse briefly concerning Baptism, and the benefits which accrue to us therefrom, even though our discourse yesterday spoke of it cursorily; partly because the time pressed us hard, and partly because the sermon had to avoid tediousness.  For too great length in a sermon is as much an enemy to people’s ears, as too much food is to their bodies.…It will be worth your while to apply your minds to what we say, and to receive our discourse on so important a subject not perfunctorily, but with ready mind, since to know the power of this Sacrament is itself Enlightenment.1    Enlightenment (φωτισμός) is one of the most ancient names for Holy Baptism; the name, in fact, which S. Gregory uses throughout this Oration, and which his Latin translator almost invariably renders by Baptismus.

Αʹ. Χθὲς τῇ λαμπρᾷ τῶν Φώτων ἡμέρᾳ πανηγυρίσαντες (καὶ γὰρ ἔπρεπε χαρμόσυνα θέσθαι τῆς σωτηρίας τῆς ἡμετέρας, καὶ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἢ γαμήλια, καὶ γενέθλια, καὶ ὀνομαστήρια, τοῖς σαρκὸς φίλοις, κουρόσυνά τε καὶ κατοικέσια, καὶ ἐτήσια, ὅσα τε ἄλλα πανηγυρίζουσιν ἄνθρωποι), σήμερον περὶ τοῦ βαπτίσματος βραχέα διαλεξόμεθα, καὶ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν ἡμῖν ὑπαρχούσης εὐεργεσίας: εἰ καὶ χθὲς ἡμᾶς ὁ λόγος παρέδραμε, τῆς ὥρας κατεπειγούσης, καὶ ἅμα τοῦ λόγου τὸν κόρον φεύγοντος. Κόρος δὲ λόγου πολέμιος ἀκοαῖς, ὡς ὑπερβάλλουσα τροφὴ σώμασι. Προσέχειν δὲ ἄξιον τοῖς λεγομένοις, καὶ μὴ παρέργως, ἀλλὰ προθύμως τὸν περὶ τηλικούτων δέξασθαι λόγον: ἐπειδὴ καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι φωτισμὸς, τὸ γνῶναι τοῦ μυστηρίου τὴν δύναμιν.